The Unwanted Imprint

Chapter 9

Sam had enlisted the help of his pack to help him look for the girl.

"I still don't understand why we're doing this," Paul growled as Sam told him what it was that they were doing. "She belongs to the bloodsuckers, so why the hell are we helping them?"

"Because there's an innocent girl that's lost in the woods," Sam retorted. "I know that she's a member of the Cullens, but she's human, and it's our job to protect the humans of Forks. Don't make me order you, Paul."

Paul growled again, but he obviously knew better than to argue with Sam on the matter. He shifted and ran off, causing Sam to sigh, He knew that Paul was a hothead, and that definitely wasn't helping things at the moment. He turned to look at the rest of the pack, which was still gathered. "This girl, her name is Nichole. She'll smell a little bit like the Cullens do, but not completely since she isn't a vampire. She's been in the woods for a few hours now, and the Cullens are fairly certain that Nichole isn't on their side of the border. You're going to be going off in pairs. Jared, I want you to go after Paul, stick with him and make sure he doesn't do anything that might break the pact."

Jared nodded his head before shifting as well and taking off after Paul. He was far less volatile than Paul was, so Sam hoped that Jared would be able to at least somewhat control him.

It wasn't long before Jared caught up to Paul. 'You know that Sam wants to do this about as much as you do.' He spoke to Paul through the mind telepathy that the wolves had.

'And that's supposed to make me feel better how?' Paul huffed as they continued to run through the woods. 'She may not be a bloodsucker, but she associates with them, and that's just as bad.'

'Paul, from the sounds of things, she really didn't have a choice. From what Sam told us about the talk he had with Carlisle, Nichole had a really bad home life, and if the Cullens hadn't taken her in, then she would have died.'

'Better to die than to become- wait, you smell that?'

Paul stopped running, sniffing at the air. It was a light, sickly sweet smell, almost like how the Cullens smelled, but not exactly like it. He realized that it must have been Nichole.

He and Seth took off running again, and soon enough, they found the girl, sitting against a fallen tree, her entire body shaking from the cold.

Paul hid himself behind a tree before shifting back into his human form, pulling on the shorts that had been tied around his ankle. He walked over to Nichole, whose eyes widened as she looked up at him.

"It's alright, we aren't going to hurt you." Jared had joined Paul as well. "Your dad asked us to help."

"C-Carlisle?" Nichole's teeth were chattering because of how cold she was. "H-he shouldn't be l-looking for me, I-I've only caused the Cullens t-trouble." She coughed as Jared picked her up. "Carlisle is really concerned about you, Nichole, he just wants to make sure that you're safe, you're all that he cares about right now. Let's get you back home, okay?"

Nichole weakly nodded, laying her head against Jared's chest. "You're really warm," she mumbled. "Werewolf thing?"

Jared laughed a little bit. "Yeah, it's a werewolf thing, really useful for occasions like this one." He turned to look at Paul. "Let Sam know that we've found her, I'm gonna take her back to the house."

Once Jared arrived at the house, Emily opened the door for him. "Lay her on the couch, I have blankets waiting." She ordered. She quickly wrapped Nichole in the blankets before giving her a bowl of hot chicken noodle soup. "Eat it slow, it's just come off the stove."

Nichole took small sips, still shaking a little bit. "Thank you," she whispered, and Emily gave her a soft smile. "Of course."

The thing that stuck out to Nichole the most were the scars that were on Emily's face. She didn't say anything about it though. Nichole knew that everyone had scars, but not all of them were on the surface, some of them were in your heart, in your mind.

About an hour later, Carlisle came walking in with Sam. When he saw Nichole however, Carlisle quickly rushed to her side. "Are you alright?" He cupped her face, scanning her for injuries. "Nichole, you shouldn't have just taken off like that."

"I'm sorry..." Nichole whispered. "I just...you and Rosalie were fighting, you always seem to be fighting because of me. I didn't want to be the cause for any more strife."

Carlisle sighed softly. "Nichole, it doesn't matter how much we might fight. You are family to us, to all of us, even Rosalie, even though she may not want to admit it just yet. YOu may not be a vampire, but you are still one of us, you will always be one of us." He wiped away a tear that had fallen down Nichole's cheek. "Now...let's get you home, alright? Esme is very worried about you."

Nichole nodded her head, and Carlisle helped her to stand up before looking at Sam. "Thank you," he said sincerely, and Sam nodded his head. "I'm just glad that she was found safe. Try to keep her from wandering into the woods from now on."

"Believe me, I'm going to be keeping a very close eye on her from now on." Carlisle wrapped an arm around Nichole, lightly squeezing her shoulder. "Come on Nichole, let's go home."